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K-Love Buys The Bay

While Christianity is not growing by leaps and bounds within the United States, some of its adherents are very wealthy and are coming up with the funding for K-love Inc. and others of its ilk to continue to make radio station purchases like this one. While I'm not a fan of any of the company's formats (I am an atheist after all), I will say that the operation 1) doesn't do much preaching beyond the lyrics of the music it plays; 2) doesn't try to divide the Christian community into religious sects like some of the Christian talk stations do; and 3) it has, in the past, assisted some non-Christian broadcasters. (I'm thinking of the HD2 channel of 90.7 mHz in West Palm Beach that carried WLRN's NPR programming for several years after the company purchased the frequency from a noncommercial public radio outlet.)
 
More radio jobs down the drain. More consumers leaving the AM/FM band for other media. Eventually everything on the FM dial will be network programming, out of market, syndicated. The main reason for radio was to be an intimate connection to the community it served. At some point there will be absolutely no reason for anyone to turn it on when one could get the same jukebox or syndicated programming streaming. Which makes me question the business model for K-Love. If you simply repeat the same programming 24/7 across the 1000s of stations you own - why keep buying? Why maintain all those transmitters, pay the electric bill, etc. when your listener could simply tune the same programming on the device of their choice?!?
 
Les Talk said:
If you simply repeat the same programming 24/7 across the 1000s of stations you own - why keep buying? Why maintain all those transmitters, pay the electric bill, etc. when your listener could simply tune the same programming on the device of their choice?!?
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Because to Evangelicals, if you convert just one more person, or bring just one person back into the fold, then it's all worth it.
 
kevtronics said:
Because to Evangelicals, if you convert just one more person, or bring just one person back into the fold, then it's all worth it.
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This is why religious broadcasters still use dying media such as AM radio and shortwave, though more and more of them are waking up to the fact that the potential audience is mostly gone.
 
This is disappointing albeit not terribly surprising news.

I, for one, will miss 100.7 The Bay's quirkiness. I like how they went about integrating classic alternative titles into the playlist.

This means, in the very near future, Baltimore will have no Classic Rock station and no Alternative station. DC101 at least does a decent job filling the void for the latter, as it has a decent signal across a good chunk of the market.

I almost said Baltimore has no Classic Hits station, but based on a review of 102.7 Jack FM's playlist, that log looks more Classic Hits than Variety Hits to my eyes. It'll be interesting to see if they pare song slots for non-rock titles somewhat.
 
CTListener said:
Which, as David Eduardo is so fond of reminding us, is the way much of the rest of the world does radio.
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More importantly, @davideduardo has stated in previous threads that this is the way advertising agencies would like it to be. They'd rather negotiate with one or two people who represent everybody than with a bunch of smaller outfits that they must come up with bids for. However, once this happens, I think many in that sector will finally realize that sometimes getting what you wished for isn't going to be worth the price you paid for that wish.
 
ted chittenden said:
While Christianity is not growing by leaps and bounds within the United States, some of its adherents are very wealthy and are coming up with the funding for K-love Inc. and others of its ilk to continue to make radio station purchases like this one.
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The last time I took the time to check the K-Love annual financial reports it was apparent that they had very few such large wealthy supporters and hundreds of thousands of small donors who had joined their monthly automatic contribution plan, such as the ones that St. Jude and a number of other charities sustain themselves with.
ted chittenden said:
While I'm not a fan of any of the company's formats (I am an atheist after all), I will say that the operation 1) doesn't do much preaching beyond the lyrics of the music it plays; 2) doesn't try to divide the Christian community into religious sects like some of the Christian talk stations do; and 3) it has, in the past, assisted some non-Christian broadcasters. (I'm thinking of the HD2 channel of 90.7 mHz in West Palm Beach that carried WLRN's NPR programming for several years after the company purchased the frequency from a noncommercial public radio outlet.)
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Good point. It is a well run group. Like you, it has no appeal to me, but I respect their ethics and good practices.
 
CTListener said:
Which, as David Eduardo is so fond of reminding us, is the way much of the rest of the world does radio.
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Except that in much of the world, what we have are national networks or simulcasts with co-owned frequencies, not independently owned syndication systems such as the US has. The way that owners of such operations think about them is "one station on many frequencies".
 
David, have you ever listened to one of the K Love pledge a thons? They make it seem like they are going to go off the air if they don't get donations. This is such a pathetic and immoral way to do business. They have deeper pockets to buy more and more than any other company. And we won't even begin to talk about the tax free benefits they get.
davideduardo said:
The last time I took the time to check the K-Love annual financial reports it was apparent that they had very few such large wealthy supporters and hundreds of thousands of small donors who had joined their monthly automatic contribution plan, such as the ones that St. Jude and a number of other charities sustain themselves with.

Good point. It is a well run group. Like you, it has no appeal to me, but I respect their ethics and good practices.
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Mediafrog+ said:
This is why religious broadcasters still use dying media such as AM radio and shortwave, though more and more of them are waking up to the fact that the potential audience is mostly gone.
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There is hardly any religious shortwave any more compared to a few decades ago.
 
Les Talk said:
David, have you ever listened to one of the K Love pledge a thons? They make it seem like they are going to go off the air if they don't get donations. This is such a pathetic and immoral way to do business. They have deeper pockets to buy more and more than any other company. And we won't even begin to talk about the tax free benefits they get.
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Those “deep pockets” come from their own listeners. And the fact is that they do spend nearly everything that comes in each year on more stations and expanded services such as listener outreach and new media extensions. They only spend as much as what comes in each year and do not have an enormous reserve or particularly high salaries.

Recognized religions and religious enterprises are among a number of activities that have been tax exempt in this country “forever“. Just because you don’t like what they do or how they do it they have just as much right two tax exemption as your local traditional, Catholic Church or, going even further, the Red Cross.
 
davideduardo said:
There is hardly any religious shortwave any more compared to a few decades ago.
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Broadcast hours are way down, but Trans World Radio, Adventist World Radio, Bible Voice Broadcasting, Madagascar World Voice, Reach Beyond, FEBC and KNLS are still very much in the international shortwave game, along with individual religious programs that are leased on brokered time facilities.
 
davideduardo said:
Except that in much of the world, what we have are national networks or simulcasts with co-owned frequencies, not independently owned syndication systems such as the US has. The way that owners of such operations think about them is "one station on many frequencies".
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I'm in the Netherlands at present, as it happens I'm sitting in Hilversum, home to most of the TV and radio in the country.

The country mostly has national networks - 538, Radio 10, Qmusic and so on. But they also have a lot of local radio - every municipality has its own public radio station with local programming, a lot of them also have TV outlets. Dutch media is incredibly commercial and networked, but on the flip side, the strength of the economy means an alternative can be provided and subsidized.
 


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